MANAGING INFORMATION

The goal of any organisations and the Managers is to manage the quality of their data stored on their management information systems so that the information is accurate and up to date, because  Senior Managers, Company Executive Officers and Directors all make their strategical planning and operational decisions based on data sets and grahical information available to them.

An Information System has a life cycle, even if the six processes of the software maintenance process are followed correctly by a software developer or IT department within an organisation, and software updates are up loaded on a regular basis the software will become a legacy information system, therefore it will have to be replaced with a web-based information system that fits the changing business needs of the organisation to share and update their data on the web. This is why it is important to manage the accuracy and the quality of the data. When Administrative and Data Management staff processing and managing the data do not carry out an extensive search for existing records, then duplicate records will be created in the  web-based information system during the data entry and uploading of data to the fit for purpose web-based information system. The appropriate data source and target should be identified during the data modelling process. Developing a web-based information system also improves website accessibility resulting in the improvement of data capture and validation. 

When the right operational data is not migrated over to the fit for purpose web-based information system the organisation will not be able to operate in a safe manner or not at all. When organisations do not create a culture where Data Managers and Administrative staff do not take owner ship for data processing, the data will have gaps and errors. This will cause problems resulting in all the data not being migrated at all, or only being partially migrated into the fit for purpose web-based information system. There will also be duplicate records migrated into the fit for purpose web-based information system, as a result data cleansing will have to be carried out using internal data cleansing resources that may not be available to the organisation. Any duplicate records should be deleted as soon as they are identified as duplicate records, so that duplicated records are not transferred into the web-based information system during the data migration process, taking away the risk of misinformation being sent to Government Agencies or organisations and it triggering a data inspection. A web based information system allows an organisation to link performance data to continuously improve performance.

Information Management Tips

1. Identify any tasks that have to be completed before the migration processes is completed, and decide who will complete those tasks in the project development team.
2. Identify the appropriate data sources and make sure that the data source is high quality and ensure it has no data gaps or erroneous data.
3. Set up communication channels between the programmer and Senior Managers and use those channels to constantly communicate with Senior Managers.
4. Before the migration of the data extract data sets and establish the data is accurate high quality data with no gaps and cleanse the data to improve the data quality.
5. Carry out data Quality Assurance Audits regularly to ensure that the correct processes is being followed by all staff.
6. Carry out data migration testing after the data has been migrated to the web-based information system.
7. Constantly have review meetings during the data migration processes to review the data migration process ensuring key members of staff attend review meetings.
8. Once the data is migrated create a culture of data ownership for the quality and accuracy of the data.
9. Ensure the dates are correct before the start of the migration process and the transferring of data into a web-based information system.
10. Ensure codes are correct at the start of the data migration processes before the transferring of data is completed.
11. Carry out an extensive search on data before entering records onto a web-based information system and uploading them
12. Carry out data cleansing regulary and update the record sets, tables or database
13. Identify what  the data sources are of the management reports the system will produce and an appropriate report development tool